English-language school boards in the province are celebrating a temporary victory after the provincial appeals court ruled it will continue to allow communication in English inside of school boards and with other English-speaking bodies.
Earlier this month, a provincial appeals court agreed to suspend certain provisions of Bill 96, an amendment to the provincial Charter of the French language that demands English school boards communicate in French.
Last year, the English Montreal School Board (EMSB) launched a challenge of the bill. Board chair Joe Ortona said the amendments are both ridiculous and unconstitutional.
“It’s a ridiculous provision for an English-language school board. We have many anglophones that work in our system and among each other we speak in English. It’s quite normal,” he said.
“We as English-language school boards are constitutionally protected under Section 23 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. We have the right to manage and preserve our . . .
school system and protect our language and culture.”
Ortona said the effects of Bill 96 also trickle down to enrollment and funding.
“It basically imposes a language of communication on English school boards, and imposes further restriction on who we can accept into our school system, which affects our enrolment, and enrolment affects our overall funding.”
The suspension of certain parts of Bill 96 will allow English school boards to keep communicating in English until the Superior Court makes a final decision.
“That is going to remain in effect until we get a final decision from the Superior Court on the constitutionality of the bill and all of the provisions that were contested,” Ortona said.
He is confident they will win the case.
“The requirement that we must be operating in French is absurd, and the courts have thus far agreed, and we’re confident [ . . . ] that’s going to be the result at the end of the day,” he said.
“As an English community we have the right to manage our own school system, and to be making our own decisions when it comes to pedagogical matters, [ . . . ] language, culture, all of that stuff.”
THE EQUITY reached out to the Western Quebec School Board for comment, but received no response.
The school board is home to 25 schools across the Outaouais and Abitibi-Témiscamingue regions, and, according to its website, has been offering quality English-language education since 1998.
